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Watch Måneskin and Tom Morello’s energetic performance of GOSSIP on The Tonight Show
See Måneskin and Tom Morello perform RUSH! single GOSSIP on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Roman rockers Måneskin continue their march towards ultra-stardom with raucous third album, Rush!...
Måneskin have come a long way in the short time since they were plucky teenagers busking on the streets of Rome. Arriving via the Italian X Factor and their outrageous win at 2021’s Eurovision Song Contest, the quartet are already one of rock’s biggest bands: racking up billions of streams, supporting The Rolling Stones, crashing awards shows in a feelgood whirlwind of old-school swagger, dubious ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ and assless chaps. But they’re still hungry for more. Third album Rush! feels like a promise that they won’t be happy until they’re right on the tippity-top.
Some will say that’s a negative. The switch to English language lyrics, for instance, on songs like Own My Mind, Timezone and The Loneliest sacrifices complexity and quirky individuality at the altar of (even greater) UK/American success. The hip-swinging pop-rock pulsating through Bla Bla Bla and Feel, too, treads a fine line between retro-rock reliability and reversion to formula. And collaborations with a small army of superstar songwriters and pop producers – Sly, Captain Cuts, Max Martin – delivers both big money slickness and its own heard-it-somewhere-before familiarity.
When Måneskin tap into the youthful exuberance and fiery eccentricity that got them here in the first place, though, they’re still utterly unstoppable. Spring-loaded second track Gossip’s bombastic collaboration with Tom Morello has the air of kids buzzing to be in the company of a bona fide guitar hero – who’s just as inspired to be in theirs. Kool Kids sees an unexpected lurch into aggro-punk that feels like an adrenalised IDLES gone Italian. Best of all, the unhinged rap-rock of La fine and Il dono della vita’s jazzy swell – both sung in emotive Italian – prove their credentials as ambassadors of the universal language of rock’n’roll. Bravissimo!
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: The Struts, Palaye Royale, Panic! At The Disco
Rush! is released on January 20 via Epic/Sony